'Improvements need not necessarily be complex'

NS Ramnath, TNNNov 2, 2006, 03.21am IST

If the term 'smart manufacturing' evokes images of complex technology and huge investments, Jukka Lehtela, director-India operations of Nokia, is quick to dispel such notions. It's all about simplicity, he says.

Smart manufacturing is also about willingness to learn and to teach — and about the belief that good ideas can come from anywhere. Lehtela is in charge of the Nokia manufacturing unit at Sriperumbudur, near Chennai. Excerpts from an interview with NS Ramnath.

How is smart manufacturing different from, let's say, lean manufacturing, which also seeks to eliminate waste and improve efficiency?

Lean manufacturing is a part of smart manufacturing. Smart manufacturing is a broader concept, and includes lean manufacturing and other tools such as kaizen (continuous improvement), visual controls and 5S strategy (Sort, Set-In-Order, Shine, Standardise and Sustain). To draw a parallel, it's similar to the Toyota Way. Smart manufacturing is Nokia way of doing things.

In India, we use the concept to combine global best practices with India advantage, its talent. At the base of smart manufacturing is what we think of as core Nokia values - customer satisfaction, respect for the individual, achievement and continuous learning. Smart manufacturing practices have a bearing to these values, and are developed as result of asking questions like 'What can we do here, in this plant, that can improve customer satisfaction?'

Can you give an example of such an improvement that originated elsewhere, and is being used here?

Quite a few. The point about smart manufacturing is that the improvements need not necessarily be complex. In fact, the simpler, the better. Let me give an example. Someone suggested that to check whether all accessories, such as charger and user manual have been placed inside a box before its packed into a bigger one, all we need to do is weigh it. If the box weighs less, something is missing. I don't know where it was first thought of, but we use it across our facilities. That is smart manufacturing.

Any such ideas from the Indian centre?

Yes. We are 3,500 people here at present. When we had about 2,500 people we had a company wide awareness programme on kaizen. During the programme, Nokia employees were asked 'How would you make things better for customers in your own area of operation?' Can you guess the number of suggestions that came up? There were close to 2,000 ideas. This just goes on to show the quality of people we have here in India.